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  The giant bat swooped down on him, the outstretched wings cutting through the air as it angled its descent. The claws underneath the squat body came down and aimed with unerring accuracy, taking the old man’s left arm in both feet. He screamed, high-pitched, almost inaudible, a combination of shock and pain as the claws dug into his flesh, tearing through the flimsy material of his jacket and suit. He stood firm, trying to pull against the flying monster, but all he did was give it better purchase with which to twist its claws. His arm rotated in the shoulder socket, the joint wrenched free as the burning pain of muscle and tendon being rended shot through him.

  Mildred could hear Michaela turn away and vomit with fear and disgust as the giant bat pulled the old man’s arm free from his body, an obscene squelching rip sounding as the flesh and blood vessels severed, underlying the snap of the ball joint in his shoulder. The bat flew upward with the arm securely in its claws, a thin trail of blood raining to the ground. Bones stood stock-still in shock, the only movement being his mouth as he screamed, louder and longer than Mildred could ever remember hearing anyone scream. The shoulder spouted blood in rhythmic gouts, shooting out several feet onto the roadway around him. The scream dropped off as the blood stopped feeding his brain, pouring out of the open wound. He crumpled to the ground, collapsing into his own gore, dead before he hit from a loss of blood and severe shock trauma that stopped his heart from pumping what was left of his blood out through the gaping wound that had once been his shoulder and upper arm.

  Mildred was suddenly galvanized into action. She pulled the Czech-made ZKR and whirled, taking a bead on the creature as it flapped away. Already it had some distance, and she refrained from wasting ammo. Chances were that its hide was so thick that it would need bigger ordnance than the 551 at this range to make an impression. Besides which, there was something else that caught her eye as she followed the creature’s line of flight.

  “Michaela, for God’s sake, get it together,” she snapped at the healer, who was looking in frozen shock at the corpse of Bones. “Two things—one, we need to get cover. Two, I need information from you, girl. In that order.”

  Michaela shook her head, mumbled “Sorry,” almost to herself and picked up her end of the gurney. Mildred rapidly holstered the ZKR and grabbed her end, directing them toward the cover of one of the nearby lower level concrete buildings. It was an office front with the windows and doors blown out on the ground, although remnants of glass remained in some of the windows on the second and third stories.

  Mildred heaved a sigh of relief as they gained the shelter of the building. The doors and windows were too small for what she had seen outside to get near them. For the thing that had made her decide not to fire and to get to cover wasn’t the giant bat flying away with Bones’s arm still dangling beneath its belly. Rather, it was the sight that greeted her at the bat’s destination. Around the top of one of the ruined skyscrapers were several more of the creatures—perhaps seven or eight, it was hard to tell—circling rapidly, obviously agitated by what had happened below.

  When they were inside, Mildred led Michaela to the second story, so that they could get the best view possible of their new enemy. The rear of the building faced the skyscraper that seemed to act as the creatures’ nesting area. Mildred helped the girl lay the gurney down in the far corner of the room, as far away as possible from any potential danger, then led her to the window. They could see the creatures circling the ruined skyscraper, their orbit growing larger. One broke away and swooped down over the building, making them both duck and cover.

  “Shit, girl, what the fuck are they? And why the hell didn’t anyone mention they’d be around?” Mildred yelled.

  “I don’t…I don’t know…I…” Michaela couldn’t tear her eyes away from the glassless window and the sight of the giant bats circling the area of the building.

  “What do you mean, you don’t know?” Mildred yelled at her again. Michaela didn’t answer. Her eyes were riveted to the outside and she couldn’t do anything but gaze helplessly at the danger beyond.

  “Dammit, girl, I really need you to snap out of this, and now.” She grabbed the healer by the shoulders and turned her so that she was facing her. “Snap out of it, and now!” Mildred commanded, backhanding the girl across the face and knocking her to the floor with the force of the blow.

  Michaela picked herself up, blinking. She wiped at the corner of her mouth with the back of her hand, looking wonderingly at the smear of blood that had accrued where Mildred’s blow had split her lip. She looked at Mildred, and then began to cry in choking sobs that made her body shake.

  Mildred stepped across and held the young woman. “It’s okay, sweetie, it’s okay. I shouldn’t have hit you quite that hard, but I had to do something. I’m going to need you to be really on the ball if we’re going to get out of this in one piece.” She stepped back a little, holding the young woman at arm’s length. Michaela looked directly into Mildred’s eyes.

  “Sorry—I really lost it, there,” she muttered with a feeble attempt at a grin. “It’s just that I’ve never seen anything like that before.”

  “Now that’s one of the questions I needed answering,” Mildred replied gently. “Never?”

  Michaela shook her head. “I didn’t know there were creatures like that in the city. I don’t think anyone does.” She shivered as she thought of Bones—the expert on the old ruins—crumpling to his chill demise.

  “I guess that means you never come out here by night,” Mildred said rhetorically. “Thing I can’t figure out is why the hell they’ve been disturbed during daylight hours.” Michaela looked at her with incomprehension, so she filled in the blanks. “Sweetie, bats like that—though Lord knows they’re usually a whole lot smaller—are strictly nocturnal. So something must have really rattled their cage to get them out when it’s still sunup.”

  “Mebbe it’s us,” the healer said softly.

  “What do you mean?” Mildred frowned.

  “We’ve come through the middle of the old city,” Michaela explained. “For as long as I can remember, anyone who’s come out of Pleasantville—whether they’re supposed to or not—has avoided the center. Not because of those,” she added, gesturing to the still circling creatures, “but because it’s not really safe with all the old buildings falling to shit all the time. Bones brought us through the middle, taking a real risk. Guess he did take in how important it was to move quickly, after all.”

  “Guess he did,” Mildred said absently, this knowledge making her wish that she could have been quicker, sharper, somehow done something to stop the old man buying the farm.

  But such regrets wouldn’t solve their problem now. The bats had them trapped and they were running out of time.

  “They’re circling, but not coming after us,” Michaela said softly, looking once more out of the window.

  “They’re not stupid,” Mildred answered, joining her. “They know that they’ve got us cornered. They also know that they’re too big to get into these buildings and worm us out that way. I figure they’ll just circle and wait until we have to come out. They don’t need us for food, so they’re not in any hurry. And let’s face it, we’ve got more reason to move than they have.”

  Michaela cast a glance over her shoulder to where J.B. lay in the corner. “So they just wait until we have to come out, then rip the shit out of us in the open,” she stated flatly.

  “That’s about the size of it. The onus is on us to move, and they’re a whole lot bigger and more powerful than we are. They’re also really pissed at us for encroaching on their territory. So unless we can do something to either wipe them out or to drive them away, then we’re screwed and John’s bought the farm…”

  Michaela indicated the row of concrete buildings that was visible through a break in the towers. “The bitch of it is, that’s where we’ve got to go. Only about five, ten minutes on foot at most.”

  Mildred zeroed in on the concrete structures and then took a long, hard look
at J.B., still and waxy on the stretcher. “Screw this. If we’ve got to go, we’re going to go down fighting,” she rasped. “Come over here.”

  She led the young healer to J.B.’s gurney. Stowed beneath him were the bags in which he kept the companions’ inventory, as well as his own weapons. Mildred hauled out the bags and spread them across the floor. She felt the weight of J.B.’s Smith & Wesson M-4000. A load of barbed-metal fléchettes through one of those mutie bats could do a hell of a lot of damage. And that was just for starters.

  “You don’t know shit about weapons, do you, sweetie?” she asked of Michaela, who shook her head. Mildred grinned mirthlessly. “Then pay attention,” she said, chambering a round in the M-4000, “’cause you’re just about to have a crash course in all-out combat.”

  Mildred emptied the ordnance bags and went through J.B.’s personal inventory. The M-4000, which she had slung over her shoulder, was the most immediately useful of his, but she also felt certain that his Uzi would also be useful if they could get some in-close shots at the creatures. There was plenty of spare ammo for both, and also spares for all the companions. She carefully parceled it up.

  The Armorer had a plentiful supply of plas ex, as well as detonators and fuses. She was a great believer in plas ex, but in this situation could think of nothing that would make it of practical use.

  Which left her with the grens. There were stun grens, gas grens and frag grens…

  Mildred looked out of the window at where the giant bats seemed to be circling. Their nests were in one of the old skyscrapers. There was no way that she had enough explosive to bring it down—besides which, the pandemonium and wreckage would more than likely buy them the farm in its aftermath and it was way too high to attack with the grens.

  It wasn’t, in all truth, the ideal ordnance with which to attack an enemy that used the air as its medium of combat. The M-4000 would be effective if she could get a clear shot at the bodies of the bats as they swooped. The Uzi, likewise, could do a lot of damage if it was used at a fairly close range: but the danger here was in getting that close. As for the grens, if they could time it so that the thrown grens detonated in the air, then the gas and stun grens could do them some good. The frag grens would definitely take out the enemy, but at the risk of those standing beneath the point of impact.

  It wasn’t going to be easy. Mildred gave Michaela a crash course in the blasters and the grens and then outlined her tactics. They were simple, of necessity, and they were also risky. Because there was no other way of handling the situation. If they tried to wait it out, they were chilled. If they didn’t, then they could be ripped apart by the angry mutie bats. It wasn’t much of a choice.

  When Mildred had finished, Michaela was a deathly pale white. She was only too clear on the dangers, but knew that they had no choice in the matter.

  “Are you ready?” Mildred asked her.

  “No, but now is as good a time as any,” she said with an attempt at a smile.

  The two women gathered the grens and the ammo. Mildred gave the Uzi to Michaela, figuring that its relative lack of kick would make it easier for the inexperienced girl to handle than the M-4000, which had a greater recoil. They packed the spare ordnance on their bodies and stowed the rest of the armament back under the Armorer. Then, laden down with their combat supplies, they picked up the gurney and went back to the ground floor, leaving J.B. at the front of the ruined storefront. Mildred planted a gentle kiss on his forehead.

  “Hope we get through this, babe,” she whispered. There were many things she wanted to say, but somehow they seemed pointless when he couldn’t hear. Pointless when she had to be hyped up to chill.

  Mildred joined Michaela in the doorway of the store and they looked up at the circling bats. Pausing to try to take count, it still seemed to be somewhere between eight and ten. Four or five to one: not the greatest of odds. But they had the advantage of cover. Mildred pointed out the gaping entrances to the empty storefronts and told Michaela to use them whenever possible.

  The two women exchanged glances and Mildred gave a curt nod.

  The battle was on.

  Moving out in opposite directions, they ran low and fast, keeping an eye on the skies above. Three muties were directly overhead, circling in a complex pattern and the women had waited until they were at their highest point before making their exit.

  Two of the three bats immediately broke off and made for the women. Mildred turned and stopped dead, raising the M-4000 and sighting as the bat swooped lower. Sweat ran into her eyes and she ignored the sting just as she ignored the hammering of her heart. She waited as long as she dared, until she was sure that she could see the reflection of herself in the bug eyes of the mutie. Then she squeezed, letting fly with a load of barbed-metal fléchettes.

  The load spread as it reached the bat, making her realize that she had fired early. But no matter. Some of the fléchettes tore holes in the leathery membrane of the wings, but most hit the creature full in the face and body. One of the eyes splattered as metal ripped the surface, and blood spurted from the furry body as the barbed metal ripped out chunks of flesh and fur, twisting and turning as it traveled into the mutie’s innards, splintering bones and mincing organs.

  It let out a high-pitched, almost inaudible shriek as the life began to ebb from it as fast as the rain of blood that poured from its wounds onto the road below. Its momentum picked up as it lost control of its flight and it plummeted into the earth, landing with a thud that almost knocked Mildred from her feet as she sought to escape its path. She also had her eye on the third mutie, which was following its stricken mate.

  Meanwhile, Michaela was finding things a little more difficult.

  The bat that had homed in on her turned in the air to achieve the right arc for its approach and as she ran and fired, her inexperience with the Uzi meant that her first burst of fire went wide of the mark. The bat swooped lower, its claws extended, ready to pluck her off the ground.

  She was saved by the fact that she wasn’t looking where she was going. Stumbling over rubble on the old sidewalk, she fell to her left and the bat’s claws skimmed against the shoulder of her jacket, ripping into it. She yelled in pain at the plucking of her flesh and also at the jarring blow as she’d hit the old blacktop road. The pain and fear cleared her mind of any anxiety and the pure rush of adrenaline focused her completely as she rolled and came up firing. The aim was wild at first, but she hit the creature with a burst, the Uzi shells ripping into the creature’s rear end as it tried to turn, making it fly into the side of a concrete building as it yelped in pain, losing all sense of direction.

  Michaela got fully to her feet, ready to face anything that these muties may throw at her.

  Mildred, on the other hand, was hoping that there wouldn’t be much else. She was faced with the third bat, heading toward her at speed. She racked another shell into the chamber and fired, but this time the bat had learned from its companion and veered away as Mildred fired. A few of the fléchettes hit the membranous wings, but the majority sailed high, wide and harmless.

  “Jesus help me,” she muttered as the creature whirled and came back. This time she made no mistake. She waited and let fly when the bat was too close to veer away in time. The fléchettes ripped the front of the creature into shreds of flesh and bone and a spray of blood that hit her in its full stinking glory. Mildred moved out of range and puked bile, spitting it out and clearing her eyes so that she could see where the next attack would come from. Michaela moved over to her.

  “Three down. Looks like they’re using whatever brains they have,” she said breathlessly, indicating with her Uzi to the distant tower. None of the muties had followed directly the three that had attacked them; they were circling, ready to make a move.

  Two of them moved away from the tower orbit and began to fly toward the two women.

  “Listen, I’ve got an idea,” Mildred said hurriedly. “Come on.”

  She led Michaela back into the storefront and took
one of the canvas bags containing ordnance from beneath the Armorer’s gurney. She emptied it and put a selection of gas, frag and stun grens inside. Leaving the bag open, she kept one frag gren in her free hand.

  “Cover me when we get outside. If they’re going to take us two at a time, then they’ll wear us down. But they might just have screwed themselves,” she added with a grin.

  The women went out into the open as the bats approached, Mildred with the M-4000 over her shoulder, holding the bag and the lone gren. The women stuck together, making the bats head in one direction.

  “Wait till I break for it, then try to take out the one on the right,” Mildred instructed. Michaela nodded curtly.

  The bats homed in on them, and as they got so close that the women could almost smell them, Mildred suddenly took off, running along the sidewalk while keeping an eye on the mutie following her. It peeled off and as it did Michaela let rip with a burst of Uzi fire that tore into the other mutie, dropping it.

  “Come to Momma,” Mildred breathed, pulling the pin on the frag gren and slipping it into the bag. “If this doesn’t work, I love you, John,” she added to herself.

  As the bat’s claws reached for her, she arced the bag so that it snagged on the claw while throwing herself out of range, hitting the ground hard in a roll and coming up with the M-4000 off her shoulder.

  “Drive the bastard back, but don’t hit it,” she yelled, loosing a charge wide of the bat. Michaela also fired high and wide.

  The spooked bat flew back toward the tower.

  “Hurry, you bastard,” Mildred whispered.

  The bat reached the tower as Mildred counted. As she and Michaela watched, the creature seemed to disappear in a mist of gas, blood and exploding flesh. The frag grens spread their deadly load around the tower, into the other circling bats, causing havoc. The top of the tower crumbled in the impact and shock wave, and the sound that reached the women, a fraction of a second later, was deafening.